New Spring
by Nuuoa
Summary: Spring heats up to Summer, Fall fades to Winter. A never-ending cycle. One of ups and one of downs. For one hero, they don't come any easier than normal. Just a speeding through feelings. From Waking, to Sleeping. Friendship, Love, and Hate. AxA
1. Spring

**New Spring**

**By: Nuuoa Eclaire**

**Author's Note:** Hello everyone, oh I just feel so refreshed, almost as if I've been brought back from the dead. I just realized how much I needed this, and though our cute little fan base has suddenly died along with how much they show Class of the Titans on Teletoon, I will stick to it. To the only people we have left.

This poetic little piece will be about five chapters, no more, no less, and will stretch over the course of one year in the point of view of our lovable fiery red-head, no not the one I continuously kill off, but Atlanta. Each chapter will be of a different season, and that will be the theme or my writing style to match it, in the course of her one year. After a full circle you will see how she has developed changed and grown in so many different ways, but just as a little side note, there will be no actual adventure in this on….Oh! And of course I add Archie to the whole mix, haha.

So without further ado I give you my little five-pieced poke of inspiration. I hope you guys like it, and remember when or if you do to press the cute little button at the bottom to send me some love. -Nuuoa Eclaire

**_o-- With Spring Comes Birth, And With Birth A Beginning.--o_**

**Chapter One: Spring**

_o--o_

I always love the Springtime, the time of year when that nipping bitter snow finally melts and suddenly begins to blossom into a brand new year, a bright new day. A low silvery drop of dew falls from a pink magnolia. The sound is loud enough in the otherwise dead silence of Winter to wake the living. The sleepy wake and find themselves embarking towards a fresh horizon of pale sunlight, always in a dream-like state as they float down. With a gentle pathway of cherry blossoms and that single budding pastel magnolia to mark their path.

My memories of now, fade back into then. I remember myself, a year ago, amongst the sleepwalking travelers. I too awoke to that hazy scented dawn, now away from the slumber of Winter's whispers.

And just as well that I was still dozing.

And I was that yawning fragile magnolia, blushing and coy, a waking flower, blissfully oblivious of my year ahead.

The spring was not yet new.

_**o-- Can You Taste The Sunlight Flowers?--o**_

I rushed forward, embracing the caressed foggy heat around me, as if the world was still unsure if it was time for melting yet. That tiring, season long grudge, being held on for one last moment before the sunlight broke free of its confines and kissed the last hanging reflecting icicles. The cries shattered as it struck ground.

I giggled, almost delusional in happiness at the start of Spring. I was a jubilant little girl at the end and start of the world, stepping over sidewalk cracks like they were trenches, jumping over pebbles like they were boulders, and running like ground and sky had no borders. And they were indeed boundless.

"Archie, hurry up!" I called back gleefully, feeling tendrils of wind between my fingers. This is why I loved to run. A free ecstasy that others would never know soaked into my bones, and my mind processed so 

little of what I saw, that I saw everything.

"Me! Run faster than _THIS_, impossible! Just slow down, will you, Atlanta!" I barely heard him through the heaving whipping of the wind, but at the mention of my name I turned my head. My legs never stopped the blur they made against the lush green and pink hues of the park, and I could feel the speed increasing.

Archie's cry must have taken a lot out of him, because my head turn only allowed me to see an ever fading blur, bright purple, gold, and blue amongst foliage and old couples holding hands. Some even took the time to comment about my friend's poor taste in attire, and I was glad my ears picked it up, because it made me laugh even more.

Giggling I yelled back at him, "Never!" And I braved myself to face the vast lands alone. Archie could reach me later, he always followed. He was the ground to my sky, making sure I at least had something to land on when I came down from my cloud nine of jubilation. Or to catch me if I fell at the rate I was going, but that was only a trace of a thought imprinted on my mind.

I exited to main area of the park, and tackled the hill ahead of me head-first. Or feet first. I climbed and the child in my conquered had conquered a mountain, and who was to say that this hill was anything but. From the top of my Mt. Everest I could see the world before me, or at least the place in which the world was destined to be saved. And it was a beautiful battleground, so soft in color and hazily bright. My love of this season stirred within me while my eager hazel eyes scanned over rooftops.

With my eyes so busy drinking in the scenery, I barely saw or heard the grunts sounding from behind me, thinking it perhaps a woodland creature. The animal was instead the rare Archie-beast.

"You!" He pointed an accusing trembling finger at me, the source of his torture. I grinned manically.

"Hello, Archie-beast. Glad to see you made it up here in one piece. I thought perhaps the journey to treacherous for you." I giggled, still far too attached to my inner-child. Archie blinked at me, his forehead scrunched, and his beat red face, most likely from running, went crimson. Maybe speaking gave off more exertion, great to note for any future Archie-beast tamers.

"_Archie-beast?_" The critter growled at me, the tuffs of his hair at the front acted as horns, "Geeh, 'Lan, nice name." I stuck my tongue out at him.

"What are you, five?" He rolled his eyes lightly.

"And what if I am?" I huffed, my chest stuck out proudly. I leaned over to flick off a fleck of mud that had planted itself on Archie's face when he had been chasing after me.

"I can be whatever I want to be," I laughed.

"Sure!" He jumped away from my touch like I had burned him. Maybe I had, his skin had grown hot enough. I grasped the sunlight around me. It wasn't warm enough for him to have grown that hot yet. I really had run too hard for the poor guy. My nose wrinkled, my adult self screamed something about the chemical reaction a body underwent during moments of embarrassment or affection, but that voice never had much power when the flowers were in full bloom.

Archie regained composure, his words taunting like fruit, "I'm like a pet anyways… always following 

you…" He trailed off, "You can be anything you want! Sure you can sweetheart, would you like daddy-waddy to buy you an ice-cream?" He went doe-eyed, pouty lipped and stared at me. He didn't keep it up for long though; the expression on my face must have forced him into hysteria.

Gagging on his own oxygen, Archie leaned onto his knees. The guy was delusional. I punched his arm in playful annoyance.

"What, pray tell, is so funny?" My eyes narrowed, and my fingers tapped my hip patiently. When he eventually stopped laughing his skin glowed as bright as a clear day, so much blood had rushed to his face that I was surprised that he hadn't passed out.

"Y-y-your face!" He burst again, and I almost did too.

"What about my face!" The side of his arm was going to be bruised soon if he kept this up.

"It was s-s-so funny!"

"Well you said 'daddy-waddy'"! I defended myself, hopefully making a good argument. The beast just laughed, and I almost smiled.

"You're crazy, you know that, Arch?" I sighed, spinning on the balls of my feet. I kicked a lone rock. It sputtered down the folds in the grass, creased enough to form mounds, and I lost sight of it in the bush of evergreen.

"Oh, I know." The glow around him grew to a sparkle, and it lit his mouth. His smile was neon stabbing my eyes, still sensitive from the spell of Spring.

"But you love it." Archie winked.

Everything around me snapped back sharply into reality, and the young adult broke free of its chains. The use of a forbidden word worked very well as a knife. The child was banished to its room for reckless abandon, crying for being caught, and hearing a cursed word.

This word… love.

I flinched, 'Love?'

A speckle of sunlight filtered through the crisp newborn leaves, and painted shadows across Archie's long pale face. A single stroke danced along the bridge of his lashes, and I blinked. I could not breathe despite the air around me.

His lashes were dark and long for a male, and because of it more shadows blackened the tips of his cheeks, but did not hide the dim sparkled buried within his eyes. I blinked again; I couldn't count how many times I may have. I was out of my body. The deep rushing streams of Spring from Winter were a mere speck in his eyes, and a whole iris would cover five oceans.

I laughed at how ridiculous I was being… at least I thought it was a laugh… or whatever that crackled witch sound from my throat was supposed to be. Archie raised an eyebrow, and I lost my air again.

"You okay, 'Lan?"

"Fine." I did a laugh-cross-chuckle once again. Archie shrugged his shoulders. Something fuchsia crept unto his face, staining his face. I barely saw it, trapped in my thoughts and desperate to escape their confusion.

'I'm still asleep, Spring has not called me from my bed yet,' I vaguely remember thinking frantically as I rubbed my eyes and turned out to the view of the tender city. I could not feel my hands, my feet, or any part of me except that fuzzy ever growing heat working its own trail up from him to my face. I was not sure how I was aware of this, but I was sure I was dead. My throat tightened at the thought.

As I dared a look back at him the ink masters pen added lines of an almost smile to the corners of Archie's perfectly imperfect lips as he too gazed lovingly over our home. My heart tripped on something. And so it was that Spring had finally taken the last portion of my sanity, because in that brief moment of Summer, as strange and preposterous as it was, I saw a man.

And I wished he was mine.

I shook my head, and fire hair flew about me. The misplaced thought was gone, and I twirled around and grabbed my friend's hand. Dragging him along with me, I raced down the hill, eager to meet my next adventure.

"Come on, I'll take you up for that ice-cream now, daddy-waddy." I laughed, while my fellow thrill-seeker grew very, very silent.

And Spring grew into Summer, along a path of bold vibrant green.

**_o-- With Spring Comes Birth, And With Birth A Beginning.--o_**

Author's Note: Notes! The dividing notes will be of the theme, so this one was about spring. Yes, this is the beginning. Of a story, and Atlanta's ever denied feelings. I'll have to think up another slogan than for summer. Notice I put the seasons in capitals in the text : ). Random point-outs with Nuu. I hope you liked it, next four will come soon! The airy feel of the writing, drenched in flowery perfume will go away though, replaced with something more bold for summer, and then flowy and crisp in autumn. Brittle in the winter. Pst, I WANT AN ARCHIE-BEAST. Grawr. -Nuuoa Eclaire


	2. Summer

**Author's Note:** I really like this story. It's very easy to write, and I really have a set bunch of quotes I want to use, and an idea of the transition I'm going to take from chapter to chapter. And Summer is just so much fun, at least before the seasons get colder, and I'll have to get back into those emotions. Hint. Even if the beginning of this chapter sucks, I wanna post it now! Yay!

This now takes place four or so odd months after the last chapter, and that previous brief glance at Archie has sent Atlanta's dull senses into a turmoil—as you will see. If only there was more of turmoil though, over her feelings. As expected of our heroine, she forgot all about the incident after she ran off to get ice-cream with 'daddy-waddy'. But it will come back.

Summer is bright enough to put things in a new light, or maybe reveal what was already there.—Nuuoa Eclaire

**Disclaimer:** That was forgotten due to excitement. Nuu no own. Nuu mad. Nuu roar. Nuu kidnap Archie. Nuu abuses Archie... sexually. Nuu avoids further possibilities.

**Review Replies:**

_Paradox-Barbarian-Princess :_ You ain't on drugs girl! The Gahs are a virus that infect us all! EPIC GAHS. To buy the special limited edition sparkle Archies, check your local Wal-Mart. Even though they might be out-of-stock. In high demand, you know. xDD, yes, yes. We know it's impossible to stop the mind when something with even the slightest trace of dirtiness meets Archie. I mean, the boy is asking for it. Carrying a whip around like that. Seriously.

_Becky Sky:_ Thanks hun. Really appreciated here : ). The flowy writing is mainly my style, isn't it? And also that of the chapter. Hopefully I can transition. UPDATING NOW.

_Reborn-fire-bird:_ Well, knowing me I'll try to bring this fan-base back to life multiple times. So all is well. Theresa is a cat, she has nine lives ;3, don't worry. Thanks a lot : ), glad to pride the English professor within us all.

_AllytheThird:_ xDD I think we call do. It's a natural urge, just like breathing. Thankies : ).

_TheDragoness1992:_ HELLO TREE-SISTA. FROM ANOTHER MISTA. Thanks for the review and praise, always makes me warm and fluffy inside. 8DD HOLY COWS ALIVE. I HAVE ONE. I HAVE ONE. falls over in shock and squishes it D: NOOOEEZZZZ.

_Lepidopteran:_ Thank you very, very much, Miss : ). Means a lot. SUMMER IS HERE. EARLY... though finals still lurk in the shadows. Hiss.

_Demenior:_ Well I hope this dying thing you developed wasn't fatal! xDD, that's a cool system. Where'd you get it from? You caught my hint ), Winter comes, doesn't it? BUT IT WILL STILL HAVE ARCHIE. All is well in Nudemania, WHEN ENTERING THROUGH ARCHIE CLOSESTS (others reading this reply: .. wtf?). Archie laughs at his own jokes because no one else will ):. Poor fatherless boy, GO SULK IN DARK ALLEYS. Five-hour HOBO WALK. Well, you know how much I love your praise, FLATTERY, and give it equally. So here's more back, and an update. 3

_**o—Summer Carries A Toxic Heat, With Traces Left On My Red Cheeks.—o**_

**Chapter Two: Summer**

**_o--o_**

It smelled of salt and juniper. Of fresh, and damp. Of flowers, and green grass.

It smelled of Summer.

So it smelled of me.

Looking back, I was always looking back, I caught a glimpse of my always trusty, granted pathetic, companion. I was for once not running, and my only thoughts were about making it home to a great big glass of lemonade, out on the lawn. Laying down, playing some sports, and getting a fresh dose of UV rays.

The only thing standing in my way to eternal happiness, was the thing trudging along behind me. My eyes narrowed.

"You," I stated these thoughts out loud, "are pathetic."

"Thank you, I truly, really try." Archie bowed clumsily, probably only so because he made the effort of gracefulness. I chuckled, and my fist grazed his arm.

"I give you that. Only you could 'try' to avoid the beach." Archie's face darkened, contrasting the shimmer of light folded around us.

"Hey, the beach is a very dangerous place."

"Right," I sniffed, and the air that hit my nostrils overly heated, "If you're a hero that's scared of the water. Ah," I pretended to drown by falling to my knees, grasping at the invisible waves, "THEY'RE** EATING ME**!"

"Lannie," Archie's face grew so dark it was pitch black, black mixed with a varying amount of red. But his unspoken words rung true, so I decided to spare him from the teasing, until the reason for it was laid out before my very eyes. The glare of the sun had dimmed slightly when we reached the rare shadows, and I really saw him. I nearly killed myself from the laughter.

Archie's hair had melted into his forehead. The normally pert purple flecks he called '_Mo' licks'_ were plastered over his damp forehead, and their tips turned into to form the rough outline of a sad smiley face. The sad face's frown turned deeper when Archie's brow furrowed in annoyance. Poor guy just made it worse.

"Is there a virus going around or something? Something that makes you crazy?" Archie mumbled. He looked like one of those guys that just had his girlfriend call him weird, surprisingly enough. A chilli pepper could not match the colour of his face, so to spare him more embarrassment, I pointed out his... hairy forehead friend.

Sad face was soon wiped from existence.

"You could've told me earlier." Archie wailed as we continued our march back to town. 'Summer, thank you for my daily observations,' I grinned to myself before replying.

"I was waiting for the opportune moment." I chuckled heartily, feeling the humidity lace through my toes, peeking out of my flip-flops. They were still a bit wet from the beach; some salt was drying, albeit dirtily at the tips.

"You had over an hour!" Archie proceeded to flail his arms about. I barely escape a hit to the jaw.

"Whoa there Arch, take a breather." I let out a giggle-snarl, grabbing the unleashed limb. As I did so, not only did Archie's arm stop, but his breathing as well.

I stopped breathing too.

Something dug its way into my stomach and nestled in there for an untimely hibernation, but it was far too awake and lively for my liking. The butterfly was fluttering, fluttering, fluttering, and burning at the point where I touched him. I felt like I was going to throw up.

I let go of his pale hand, and coughed. I didn't really bother to search for his reaction; the boy was probably... well... I had no clue.

I hated having no clue.

"Let's stop a while."

"O-okay," he stammered, "Let's climb that tree!" As if it was the most obvious thing to do in the world when one stopped to take a rest. I sighed, not really wanting to argue with him. If I did that I would have to make contact again, 

and I still felt queasy.

"Sure," I scampered up after Archie. The tangle of limbs that I assumed was him had already reached the top of beautiful bold green foliage. My hands gripped the bark, and I climbed nature's ladder. I plopped myself down, but the relief did not last long.

Feeling the odd sick sensation crawl back into my stomach, I dizzily turned away from Archie. 'Maybe there really is a virus going around.' I felt a bit better, not looking at him. At this extremely uncharacteristic realization, my head snapped up and almost hit the low tree branch above us. 'Me! Not us!' I bit my lip a little too fiercely.

The reason I felt sick wasn't because I was looking at him though, of course not. It was stupid. It was just the uncomfortable angle my tender stomach was put in when my... head... twisted... towards him. Yeah...

My apparently stomach-joined head nearly whacked the oak in frustration.

"Isn't this the place?"

"Huh?" I was confused and his talking caught me off-guard. What place was he talking about, "What place?"

"The place. You know, the hill that we reached a couple months ago, during March. After I had finally caught up to you. The daddy-waddy day?" He laughed, but my own was half-hearted. The rest of it had gotten stuck in my throat. 'He remembered?' That day was a beautiful dream to me. The same sunshine that had captured his face on that day was so much brighter now. I wished it could dim.

"Oh, right."

The white sun pierced through the clouds, like fire burning my vision. I blinked, still not daring to shift towards the purple thing annoyingly still at my side—sitting on our tree branch, smiling silently. I could tell he was, if only out of the farthest corner of my eye.

Archie was poised, even if his feet hung ungracefully over the ledge, swinging. The sun's fist attacked his ankle brace, maybe mad that something was equally gold or shiny, but all it managed to do was make it more so. The sheer intensity of the light it refracted hurt almost as much as the name of the spot on my body, under the left side of the chest . Something next to my heart, because it couldn't be the former.

Upwards from his kicking legs, his ridiculous blue shorts were bunched. I hid a chuckle. Archie would probably get cuts from the things, they weren't meant for our many escapades, and the dangers of dirty and sharp seating that came with it. He was really a stay-at-home boy, despite years of training in the field of dark alley sulking.

I smiled, and had actually almost permitted myself to feel better, when I may have well just have injected the virus once again. My eyes reached his nearly-bare, muscular chest, covered only by a thin layer of white that was definitely not allowed to be called a shirt. The heat of the Summer air swarmed to my face staining it bright red. It was too hot out. Far, far, FAR too hot. A tingle shot down my spine. I could've swore it was the vibrations of Summer's laughter.

"Put on your jacket, will you?" I mumbled incoherently, but Archie's ears must have been well tuned, because they seemed to pick up every word just fine.

"Umm, why?" I stared blankly at him. I didn't know... really... I nearly bit the jerk's head off.

"Because." I stated, folding my arms across my chest. 'That reason should prove enough,' my thoughts were inflated, but easily popped.

"But then I would get all sweaty..." Archie trailed off, and my thoughts took a sharp, and very different turn into a land where Archie lay bare and glistening in the whispers of a Summer morning. I practically fell face-first to the ground. I 

had to get out of that world fast, but I doubted any amount of speed I possessed would help would speed up the process.

The vision tricked me into meeting his wide stormy blue eyes just as easily as it trapped me in the land of… indecently dressed men. They were twinkling, sparkling, and being altogether just too beautiful for words. He blinked, but as soon as they re-opened, alert and confused at my expression they stole my breath, and left me speechless.

But not without motion.

"You already are sweaty!"

Not only ruining the moment, but taking it, tearing it, and then stomping on it many times, I pushed myself away. Punching his arm, I scrambled onto my feet, still not sure why exactly the image haunted me so, or why I hit him until I glanced back down. I barely held onto my footing, pretty sure I was not meant to be a tight-rope walker, and a weave of damp sunlight didn't hold much to a net.

A jolt passed through me. I was going to fall. My hands reached to grab the air, but it turned out that despite being very real to me, Summer was refusing to take flesh form. So I settled for a mortal, rather than a season. I was shaking, but I only panicked as a new light shed onto the fact that my real fear happened as Archie's hand grabbed mine. Or maybe it only revealed what had always been there.

A jolt passed through my entire being. He pulled me back to my original perched position and with it an over-heated reality. I both relished and feared the electricity, and the lack that came as he hurriedly let go. My breathing hitched violently, and I wanted to cry. He noticed.

"What is _with_ you? Are you okay? You practically_ killed_ yourself! Do you need—" Something was furious beating my skull, and my teeth clenched. I was angry. I needed no sympathy from him. The pavement was not the only thing sizzling today, and my rage boiled to a top. In fact, it reached so high, that it dissolved into nothing.

"I'm fine. Just thirsty." My smile hung limp and wilted. Archie's brow furrowed, and I sighed, wiping condensation from my neck.

'What is wrong with me? Am I dehydrated or something?' My hands dropped from my throat and traced the rough edges of bark. The ancient lines almost seemed like an equally old-fashioned sign of affection. Like the letterings of couples, using wood like walls to mark their initials together in eternity. All for that word... that... love.

"If you say so—"

The thing that tasted so sickly sweet dropped like a bomb from my mouth, "Have you ever had a girlfriend?"

The humidity was not the only thing that hung heavy. It was a toxic blanket of silence.

My words shocked me so much that I retreated from my body, trying to take shelter from the aftermath, and obvious explosion that came with such a sentence like the one I had spoke. Had the world records people made it here yet to report the latest scoring of longest mouth drop made by a purple-haired warrior? Or just a person in general?

He made no move to give a reply, and his before perfect eyes belonged to a hunter watching his prey. I was supposed to be the hunter... not the other way around. 'But I don't want to hunt him!' My head throbbed from inner-yelling , 'What am I thinking? My head feels fuzzy... I must be coming down with something.'

"Yes."

The enemy dropped explosives of their own, filling the streets of the place under the left side of my chest with sirens and mother's cries. For a time so hot, why did it feel so cold?  


"Oh..." Archie was awaiting my reaction, and despite his obvious discomfort, he didn't let himself waver from battle position. He was well-trained in combat, though I wasn't quite sure what we were exactly fighting for in the first place.

"What was she like?" My voice cracked, and I grabbed my neck it horror. Bad body, don't make idiotic reactions in crucial times like this.

"Well..." It seemed that someone I had struck a weak spot in his defense, and Archie actually tore himself from my side. Had I won?

"She was the opposite of you." Archie whipped to my right, and grabbed a branch, stumbling to the ground. His face illuminated visage was near purple.

"It's late," he began.

'It wasn't. '

"I'm heading home."

'Home?'

"Catch up when you want." Archie equally stumbled over his words, before racing back along the path and then clear out of sight.

'Catch up?' My legs wouldn't let me, for they felt like lead.

Alone on the branch I remained, breathing in erratically the fevered air surround me. Something dropped, and I hoped it wasn't me. I wasn't quite sure how long I rested there, in the cradle of lingering sun.

'Opposite?' The nameless place under the left side of my chest seemed far too close to my heart for comfort.

And Summer rusted to Fall, as the name implies, falling along the way.

_**o—Summer Carries A Toxic Heat, With Traces Left On My Red Cheeks.—o**_


	3. Fall

**Author's Note:** I think the main delay, (BUT NOT FOR ME, ONLY A WEEK) for this chapter was the title. I swear. I was like... okay, Nuu. Autumn. Fall. Autumn. Fall... DD: GREAT. I stuck to Fall, because of the possibilities that I take full advantage of, linking of two different forms of 'falling'. Glad to see you are all enjoying it, I really appreciate all your support! Don't leave me when Winter comes around.- Just Nuuoa today

**Disclaimer:** I cannot say this again. Archie is still emotionally detached due to previous raping.

**Review Replies:**

_Storm Warning:_ I am :), and yes. Cliffy... that lasts four odd months. Poor Atlanta.

_Paradox-Barbarian-Princess :_ xD I've already covered all of your EPIC, EPIC review. So how could I go more into detail? You know I love it, and you! Yayyyy.

_Becky Sky:_ Thank you very much Becky :3. Ahaha, yes, well Archie isn't very creative in awkward situations. And no, I am not, but glad you got a review!

_Reborn-fire-bird:_ Thank you! I am trying to put a tiny story line into it. That was one of my favourite lines too :D, glad you picked it up! FJILKDFJKLSDJFKLDSJF is all I have to say about that episode. It was far too amazing for simple words. So I must froth.

_TheDragoness1992:_ Don't camp out too long, Miss! Need food, and a bathroom. AND A TELEVISION.

_Lepidopteran:_ Thank you muchles. I've been trying to keep Atlanta and Archie just how you described them, so glad to see it picked up!

_Demenior:_ Just like Anya, Dem, already ranted on this. I must get to the chapter! But it does not mean I like you any less xD... Or does it? O: GO LOOK IN A MIRROR.

_FuNnY cIdE:_ Oh, the great and marvellous youtube god. Thank you so much! Despite how long I've been here (fanfiction) I am quite young, and still eager to improve, so that really means a lot. Pft, when am I NOT writing?

**_o—Autumn Tears Chill The Air.—o_**

**Chapter Three: Fall**

_**o--o**_

"So you basically just take the degree from over here—"

"Why?" I groaned, feeling utterly dejected. 'Schoooolllll,' my thoughts were being tortured.

"Didn't we just go over this, Atlanta?" Odie was groaning to, from the torments of dealing with a girl that had no concept of numbers what-so-ever. That was me, and I felt awful about it, but really _he _had been the who offered to help. And the one who was born a genius. Odie had either brought it on himself, or he could blame genetics.

"Yes," I did a grunt-laugh, a combo that sounded mildly over the crazy side.

"I'm just surprised that you're already overwhelmed. Is something else on your mind?" Leave it to Odie to read me like an open book.

"No, of course not!" I snapped, now vividly awake and ready to begin again. I would not allow the incident to be redrawn a new in my brain. I'd rather fill it with things I could gladly forget afterwards.

"If you say so," Odie picked up his mechanical pencil, and I grabbed my equally perfect chewed one. He leaned over one of the many Math textbooks. I could barely see the paper in front of me! The boy's hair was like a jungle. Dark and untameable.

"Odie, the creature on your head is eating you again." Odie grunted, either avoiding my request for less hair freedom, or just plain not listening to me.

"So you take the opposite angles, and then you—"

"WHAT?!" The poor boy didn't have a chance, he had awoken a different creature entirely. Not one calmed by a hair brush.

"O-opposite a-angles..." I was probably frothing, and my eyes were already barbaric from lack of sleep.

" I heard you before! What are you, STUPID!"

"N-no," Odie grabbed onto his bag for a shield, but it was futile, and I kicked it away. The prey was almost mine, so I would have a great feast.

"Yes, you are," I whispered in his ear. It must have burned like fire, but Odie jumped to his feet, nearly lost his head, and then ran to the door.

"Yes, I am! I am! I am stupid! Bye, Atlanta! Good luck on your test!" The door vibrated after the distressed slam. He had even left his neon glasses. I would have to try them on later.

I would also have to apologize to Odie later. It wasn't his fault I was in this state. That was the fault of another _beast _entirely. I'd find Odie later, after he got off the phone with what would be his mom. As for the other beast... I made my way to my bedroom window.

The time of Fall was always beautiful, even if it was a bit dull. The reds, orange, and yellow hues of foliage made up for it. I had almost forgotten about the new season with the start of school exams. Grade eleven was not going to be easy, I knew this as it was the first week back, and I was already behind.

My worries were left with the homework on my corner desk. I opened the window and heaved a sigh of relief. This was how it was supposed to be. Me and Mother Nature, the two of us forever. Just the two.

Then something changed the limited landscape of my window forever.

Archie pulled into the front of the brownstone silently, ruining my peaceful musing without making a sound. I attempted to see anything but him, and didn't really accomplish the task. I actually made an animalistic noise, and rose to get a better shot at him with my invisible pistol. Maybe if he was dead, things could go back to the way they were before.

Trudging lightly, Archie seemed to be cursing to himself. Despite the chill that hung fresh in the air, Archie took off his jacket. He lurked over the edge of Theresa's car door, and then jumped out, rapidly making his way to cover something on the other side. On the way his foot landed in a puddle of murky water, and he yelped, frantically trying to rid his shoe of the sodden leaves. At the sound he covered his mouth in despair and began cursing again.

A smile lit my face, but I wiped it off and groaned. Whether out of curiosity, humour, or annoyance, I decided to make my way outside and see what perils Archie had gotten himself into this time.

By the time I made it down the front steps, my words had leapt from my mouth. When I saw him, I lost hold of my previous anger, and memories. Even in wisps of fog he shone.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap..."

"What are you doing? Polishing Theresa's car? Wait... she actually let you borrow it!" I interrupted his mumblings, but it was too late to stop my own words. In my haste to make it outside I had almost forgotten that ever since the summer, Archie and I hadn't really... spoken as much as we used too. It wasn't that we weren't friends... but we weren't...

_Us._

I blinked briefly, caught by surprise. I dampened my dry lips, and my nose scrunched. 'Why is that?'

"Yes, yes she did. And oh, I wish I had never asked! You see, I'm doing just the opposite actually," Archie sighed while he answered my previous question. He took ran his hands across the bridge of his purple hair, the wind tossed his scent into my nose. The smell of spice failed to distract me from one word he said in particular. 'Opposite... oh, now Autumn, return forgetfulness to me.'

I tried to focus on the automobile as Archie moved his jacket away, revealing a small, but deadly, deadly dent along the right corner, near the bottom of the handle.

"Haha, just as I had expected, you killed her baby. Theresa is going to destroy your very soul," my laugh was forced. I played with my blue scarf just to avoid looking at him, but instead of making it less awkward it added to the effect. My mannerisms would soon remind him of the phase of solitude we were going through. I couldn't even recall the last time we had gone for a midnight snack run. My sadness overcame the return of my anger. I missed my best friend.

"Don't remind me," Archie groaned, he sunk into the reason for his doom. Maybe he didn't notice it yet, but he would. My gaze was translucent fire, and I joined him on the cold damp pavement.

"I wonder how she'll do it. Executioner? Guillotine? Or perhaps the good ol' fashioned assassin."

"Hey!" Archie laughed, and I smiled brightly because of it. My cheeks flushed. Maybe hope remained after-all, "If Jay's involved Theresa may be influenced to hire **CRONUS**!" I said, throwing my arms into the sky.

"Hahaha!" Archie clutched his side, and I embraced the warmth of his breath against my neck. Why had I been so angry about before? Sure, he had a girlfriend, and I was the opposite of that, but I couldn't be hypocritical. Did I even like Archie? The unsettling thought was pushed away. He was my best friend, and I had him back for now. And that girl no longer belonged to his world. The world that we shared.

He shattered it.

"This one time, Sophie and I went to the mall, to go pick out shoes for her and whatnot, and on the way there, we swerved into a ditch! But no, no, no, knowing us, we went _over _the ditch, t_hrough_ the fence, and _into _the tree. Her dad's car is now in the museum of natural disasters. We weren't hurt though," Archie's smile dropped when my face did.

"Sophie?"

"Right, my old girlfriend. Didn't I tell you about her?" Archie's stormy eyes matched the sky overhead. I hated him. Was he completely blind to my feelings?! ... Was I? My eyes grew wide in fright, with his own only a blink away. My anger returned as quickly as it had left my. It seeped into me. I hated him.

"Yes, yes, you did. Remind me again what 'Sophie' was like?" I leaned away from him. Just as the law state, or as Odie was teaching me in Science, one action causes an immediate reaction. Archie leaned in closer.

"Umm... nice, pretty, smart, a good girl. A friend. Why?"

'Opposite." My face said it all.

"What's wrong, 'Lan? You okay?"

"I'm fine," I grumbled, "You're probably an expert at destroying things by now, aren't you? Maybe it's self-inflicted," I huffed, and blew a strand of fiery hair off my face.

"What?" Archie sounded genuinely wounded, and I almost reconciled, but I was not that easily persuaded to forgive once I'd already forgiven and he just screwed it up all over again.

"Nothing." The invisible wall we had built over after July was right back in place. Between us. Neither of us made a move to destroy it.

"Is _this_ why you've been avoiding me for the past couple of months?!" So he wasn't a completely retarded after-all.

"So you do remember." I hissed.

His reply was a continued thought, one I was not expecting.

"It's because you've been dwelling on me calling you _opposite _of her, isn't it?" Archie's smile was the most crooked thing I'd ever seen. I rose off the ground, and started to make my way back to the dorms.

"That could mean anything, Atlanta," Archie's brace scuffed the ground as he clambered up. His voice was gentle, so I loathed it more.

"Anything. Do you not care enough about me to talk to me about it? Am I not your friend—"

"Don't you dare say that!" Tears stung my eyelids, and my face contorted in rage. My fists balled up. Archie had no right to speak my own worst thoughts on the situation, to dig deep into my heart and read them aloud.

"OH! And why not?"

"Because!" I bit my tongue.

"Because? I that the only reason you ever give!" Archie was growing wilder, and unlike himself. The gentleness was gone, replaced with years of something hidden. I welcomed the challenge, though I wanted to back away.

"Well what about yourself? Do you just give no reason at all?!"

"There's no need for a reason! I state the facts."

"Facts with no evidence!" I spit.

"I've seen with my own eyes! Is that not enough! I saw that you were opposite!"

"Opposite?! To what! EVERYTHING SHE IS!" I was screaming now, I could not control myself. I was quivering violently. I swung my arm to punch him, but Archie was too fast, and grabbed my fist.

"Yes! Exactly! _Brilliant."_ Archie grinned in actual enjoy of my pain, or perhaps due to his own. I freeded myself from his grip, and back away. He took a step toward me, and I would have taken another step back, but my feet were cemented to the pavement.

"I hope Theresa really does kill you." Archie ignored my insult and took another step.

"Don't c-come any closer!" I stuttered, my hands grasping nothing.

"That has a double meaning, doesn't it?" His grin was still in place, his eyes ever boring into mine. A current pulsing through the dreary rusty gray.

"No!" I was trapped within myself.

_"Yes!"_

"If you're my friend, you'll STOP!!" Archie had reached me, and he tried to pull me into an embrace. Before I could comprehend his warm strong arms wrapped around me, I pushed him away with all the strength I possessed. Archie fell to the ground.

The puddle tore apart as Archie landed, and all was quiet until he shouted the words that ripped more than just the fabric of Archie's jacket as it caught the sidewalk.

**"YOU'RE NOT MY FRIEND AT ALL, ATLANTA!"**

He killed me.

In the echo of Archie's yell you could hear a pin drop. Our eyes saw nothing but the other. Our ears were left to listen to the dances of leaves, the drips the puddle droplets made as they dropped from his nose, and the whispers the wind carried from the past.

They were all lies.

"You're right, Archie."  


"Atlanta, you know I didn't mean..." Archie's face melted into despair.

"I think I finally understand what you do mean, Archie." I didn't want to speak his name anymore, or feel it rest on my tongue.

"No, you don't, 'Lannie. I lo-" I ended his desperation, it didn't matter what he said.

"I'm not your friend, and I don't think I ever was."

I turned from Archie's wavering outstretched hand and ran inside; my feet and heart pounding in my head.

My heart still beating furious, I tried to lock the front door. My grip was shaking. I was disoriented, unsure which way to turn the handle. 'Do I push, or pull?' At last a click sounded, but the sound that followed soured the taste of victory.

"Atlanta!" I stared through the soft wood, and the voice painted what was beyond it. The gold handle shook.

"Let me in! Let me talk to you! Please! Atlanta!" Archie was knocking against the door, his fits probably bruised with the effort.

"Shut up." This voice was not my own, it was too fragile.

"_Please!"_

"Shut up."

"Please." Archie' fervent whisper stabbed my very soul.

"SHUT UP!" Tears whipped my skin as I turned my back to his struggle. I had to escape, run away. I was frigid, I was burning. Was there no rest for the victim?

I couldn't really see where I was going, something was fogging my vision. My legs trembled as they ran, and I could hear a desperate heaving ringing in my ears, that and the steady desperate beat of man on wood. I couldn't dare to think it was me, or him. Wet was on my cheeks, and salt in my mouth. My head hurt, everything hurt.

I fled up the stairs and shut my eyes, thinking that if I couldn't see the world, then it couldn't see me. But I was wrong, and in my empty black shell I lost my footing and tumbled lifelessly face first. I relished the feel of the impact.

"Oh my gosh! Lannie! Are you okay?" Something grabbed my arm. I flinched, but the skin was smooth and warm from being inside.

Not Archie.

"Atlanta, are you okay?" It asked again. Theresa, yes, my mind settled, but my eyes refused to open.

I hated myself for it.

My eyes were closed, and had always been closed as I drew further within myself. Blind and newborn to everything. 'Oh, but I thought I saw everything.' How can you know more than blackness if that's all you've known? A child's world is awfully small. Limited only to the dreams of Spring.

I bit my lip, and the blood tasted just as awful as the tears before it. 'Naivety I will miss you, but I can't afford to be a child anymore, can I?'

"Oh, you _ARE_ hurt. I should get help—is that Archie outside?"

At his name I opened my eyes, and faced reality. Theresa's fresh green orbs shone in the sterile, cold, mechanical glare of the light bulb fixtures.

"No, it's not. And I'm fine." 'Never better,' I thought, and brushed her away. My hands steadied, and I sighed against the flooring, my lips inches from the ground.

"Did you fall?" Theresa herself was the unsteady one. It was pointless, wasting those emotions on such an event of little grief. 'Then why am I still crying?' Answers too had little purpose.

"No, I was falling." My mouth twitched into a grin, and my hands violently pushed away from the carpet and my friend. Now on my own two feet, I began again at a slower pace up the stairs.

"Now all I've done is hit ground." I shut the door to my room and fell against it. My back arched as my breathing hitched, and my gaze struck the open window pane. I forced myself up to cover it up. Cover it with anything.

Left in the darkness I wept.

I wept as Archie's fist pounded to break down the barrier between him and me, the door that locked me in the darkness in which I wept.

And as the sun once again overthrew the moon,

I whispered into the night.

"So I'll never fall again."

And Fall froze into Winter, the remains of the past buried beneath hardened tears.

_**o—Autumn Tears Chill The Air.—o**_

**Author's Note:** D: Geez, why is Archie such an obvious idiot? But we understand him, his malice failed to hide the fact that he –actually- meant Atlanta was more of a friend, not that that matters anymore. For all you little symbolism nit-pickers out there, I will point out mine. The window was Atlanta's comfortable, familiar life, and when Archie entered the picture, it changed dramatically, and she doesn't know what to think. She closed it at the end DD:. Also, I think the whole 'falling' speaks for itself. Falling in love and whatnot. Next... Winter... wear a scarf, and keep in mind that things should thaw out soon enough. In the meantime, go on a midnight snack run with Archie, destroy Theresa's car, or study math with Odie. Yes, Odie talks to his mom. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. xDD

The Spring is not yet new. : )—Nuuoa


	4. Winter

**Author's Note:** Winter. I'm sad/excited now from the season finale (which was a while back... though I haven't gotten a chance to really update in that time), so I won't say much more. All fans will probably go now, I'm guessing, while most have (from before most of you readers even got here). I will finish this story, and see what happens with the others. Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I had an online course that I had to get done, and I went away to the Caribbean for eleven days. WHOOHOO.—Nuuoa

**Disclaimer:** I'm just going to leave poor Archie out of this and get straight to the point. I don't own Class of the Titans.

**R.I.P. Class of the Titans (2006-2008), June 22****nd****, 2008. You will be missed, and forever loved. **

**Review Replies:**

_Anya-Paradox:_ WHY MUST YOU BE SO BEAUTIFUL? AND AN EPIC REVIEWER? And such a Cronus fangirl xD. ARCHIE DOES SUCK, but we still love him so... I did _so not _still that quote ;D... GAH, GAH. You have already reclaimed the title. VERY EXCITINGGG... V : )

_Becky Sky:_ Haha, oh geeze. It's not grammar, it's me losing a thought and then coming back to it later. Thanks for pointing it our though, I need to go fix that.

_TheDragoness1992: _Thank you, thank you. OMG, A WHIP?! HAHA. OH, HOW COULD YOU?! DO YOU KNOW THE POSSIBILITIES THAT COME WITH THIS?! NOOO, I MUST RESIST.

_Lepidopteran: _Well geeh, if you're repetitive, than I certainly am. 'Thank yous' and 'That means a lot' are getting old ;), but they're still true. I hope Winter lives up to its reputation!

_Demenior:_ FFKLDSJFLASDKJKLFJDSFJ DEM. THANK YOU, WITH WHIPPED CREAM ON TOP, because you're too good to me 333. AND YOU DID DO FANART, WHICH I STILL WORSHIP. ... wow, too much CAPS LOCK. Archie is dumb. I think that is just a natural law of nature, as well as the fact that he is a CLOSET POET THAT SULKS IN ALLEYWAYS 8DDD. Winter may be a bit more harsh than usual... YOU ARE THE ASSASIN SILLY.

_FuNnY cIdE:_ That's right, I'ma younglin' child thing. It probably only because of obsessive writing on this site xDD. HP fics, hmm? I'll go there on a bad day to cheer myself up then xDD.

_reborn-fire-bird:_ Thank you :3, means a lot that you're still here and reviewing, and that you're observant enough to pick out my little author memories. Haha, well, I didn't base him off of her Archie. Demenior's Archie tends to be a little more... violently psychotic than my own. My Archie is just a lovable idiot 3, though I'm flattered you would connect me to such a talented author. Yes, the finale was ubertastic.

_**o—With Winter Comes A Loss Of Senses, That You Can't Feel.—o**_

**Chapter Four: Winter**

_**o—o  
**_

Winter kissed my eyelids and I awoke from slumber, or at least the slumber of a long walk home from school. I was met by a beautiful bitter sight. The ground beneath my feet was a blanket of white that danced and sparkled. I had to watch my footing as my boots smacked down on the covered pavement. Winter really didn't take any prisoners.

I had already forgotten my gloves in the haste to leave school and return to the brownstone, I didn't want to make any more mistakes. Remembering my forgetfulness, I tumbled back down into the despair I had been wearing just a moment before. I was reminded why I was having to take the long way home. Over the hills and through the woods to hell and back we go.

This park could pass for Hades as far as I was concerned.

The trees were barren of colour. Brittle and stark of life. Nothing breathed anymore, nothing _lived._ The only rustle of life came from the caw of a crow overhead.

Death sure was pretty.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. I savoured the slim layer of ice that coated the inside of my lungs and throat, but exhaling released it all too soon into the air. Before my eyes it became the wisps of smoke, smoke that sparkled. Warm dust that was barely there. I had to watch it disappear.

I sighed again, but this time I did not open my eyes to watch as I let my sigh go. Maybe if I kept my lids this way for long enough they would freeze over. I would never have to watch the world around me pass me by. Darkness never shifted, but I did.

Though it seemed my thoughts were poisoned by the harsh summer memories, my body was not. So I was still moving. My corpse of a body still retained some of my past joy, the same medicine used to keep me breathing, to keep me alive. I could hear the crunch of newborn snow beneath my feet; the clear, hazy death cries. Winter claimed them too.

Yes, I was being melodramatic, and I hated myself for it; but if I gave into that sickening man it would be even worse. So what was I to do? Let my anger go? Forget all the pain that he had caused me? Or go on forever in a world where I refused to open my eyes? Wasn't there some way I could receive a sign? Swallowed pride tasted bad. I was trapped, trapped within the mental confines I could just as easily break. I wanted too. I did not.

I did not know.

My eyes opened in frustration. The darkness left too much time for thoughts I had no desire to confront. I was surprised to find my hand resting against something frosty brown. I hadn't even felt it before my sight had returned. With the last piece of my senses back in place, only what I was doing mattered. Without even wanting too, my hands began tracing familiar patterns along the wood.

I heard my crying before I felt it. The water against my cheek chilled instantly. It was so cold, and yet my vision was burning. My fingers spent eternity tracing over the forever, and even longer tracing the second word. Yes, the patterns were words.

_'F. O. R. E. V. E. R. F. R. I. E. N. D. S.'_

My fingers were numb, and my mind was too. My body would not stop its endless motion. I went back over the F and my hands were forgotten.

**O**, over and over again.

**R**, repeating.

**E**, endless.

**V**, verging on unstoppable.

**E**, eternal.  


**R**, returning.

**F**_, f_-f--...

I couldn't go over the last word, as much as I tried. The heat had melted the left side of my message, but the side bearing a lost friendship reflected back my pale, hollow face. It wasn't until then that I noticed I had lost my favourite hat. Something worse diluted this tragedy.

Though I had not been able to go back over the second curse word, I must have pressed harder, or struggled to move on to the next letter when I had first engraved it into the bark. The F, R, and the I were barely visible, but the E, N, D, and the final and only S stood out from the white-brown hue of my unconventional paper.

My brain did not take long to do as it had been drilled since the first fragile years of education. I spelled.

**'FOREVER** ENDS'.

My lament evolved into hysteria. I was laughing—okay, more like wailing. It was too funny in all honesty. The irony in it all. In this situation. Throwing my head back as I sunk to the ground, I even saw the branch on which he and I had sat.

It had split straight in half.

I guess if I had been blindly searching for a sign, I had gotten a pretty clear one.

My insane laughter, just as my breath had, eventually faded away. I was on my knees, head resting against _our _tree, nearly totally engulfed in snow.

"You're losing it Atlanta." the words did not sound like my own. They were croaked. All of that deep inhaling had iced up my throat. I coughed, but it sounded more like I was choking.

"Only slightly."

Okay, those words definitely did not sound like my own. They were all it took to send me into overdrive; and it really weren't the words that had unsettled me. The walls were back up, and before I could prepare to attack, my heart bound my face to his. Every reason for wishing I had kept my eyes closed came back to me. Or, at least...

One.

Oh, crap.

"Archie," his name congealed between us, "How long have _you _been there?"

He stood above me, higher above me than ever. This was because I was still on my knees, I knew that, but it still took me by surprise. Maybe it was because I hadn't allowed myself to stop and really look at him. If I were to scan through my memories of him since the beginning of grade eleven, I would find his face a pale, purple blur.

He was exactly how I had remembered him though, from a happier time before that. 'No,' my thoughts reminded me, 'not happy. Naive, foolish, pointless. The whole cause of our pain.' Great, now I really was crazy, but I suppose that the voices came as a package deal where insane laughter bubbled forth. But the other me was right, I was stupid, but they were still happier than this.

"Long enough." I was glad for the interrupting of thoughts, I didn't think that I could've held my angry composure for much longer if I had gotten the chance to go over his face; the sun still partially blinded me. Despite his tone, Archie looked at me with concern. I didn't deserve his kindness, I think it actually made it worse. I knew he knew that this was _our _tree. I knew that he knew that my ravenous crying hadn't been for my own personal enjoyment. I knew that he knew that I knew all of this! ... Knew.

I must've looked hurt, because Archie spoke again, with wisps of purple hair covering his face. I barely noticed the red fire of my own.

"Are you alright, 'Lan?" Archie's eyes were too calm for a storm. They added fuel to the flame under my chest. Was he trying to provoke me?! Why couldn't he just yell at me? Or maybe slap me up a little? I deserved it; I had been nothing but awful to him for the past few months. He made it so hard to stop.

Ever since our... unfortunate conversation, as well as my tearful run up to my bedroom—and I was not hiding!—Archie had been trying to talk to me. Of course, being the awful, stubborn, terrible person I was, I couldn't talk to him when I had vowed otherwise. Atlanta simply did not do that! Not Atlanta! So I had... _avoided _him—not hiding from him—and made sure that whenever my dork radar detectors went off, I ran.

That happened to be often.

In fact, since the beginning of the school year I had actually dropped weight. Maybe avoiding Archie, making sure to take shortcuts to school, waking up early—and then late when Archie found out about it—to eat, and actually _bolting _the door caused the worry and vigorous activity needed to lose weight.

I think the main cause of worry was that I was doing all of this.

"Perfectly fine, if you must know," I hissed. Archie flinched, and I hated how I hated that he hated when I spoke like that. ... Hated. I had to stop these trains of thought.

"Good... good...I haven't seen you in a while... or at least, _really_ seen you. How've you been?"

"Ha. You honestly don't know the answer to that question?" It was ridiculous, why would he even ask me that? Right, to rub it in. My brown eyes glittered with shards of mirth.

Archie didn't react to my sneer, like he had... back then. He seemed timid, far too timid for my Archie. Dammit, I meant to say... the normal Archie.

"You're right. We need to talk." Archie's brow furrowed, like he was debating something. It was also the look that he used to wear snowboarding, when we were on speaking terms.

"I'm done talking, the last time we talked things didn't really go well, you know? I'm not really a verbal person, I speak more with my actions, you know? So I'm... gonna go now."

"Atlanta." My body disobeyed me and froze in mid-motion.

"What is it, oh great master of all?" I hissed through my teeth.

"Stop it." Oh, so he was getting some of that ol' Arch back now, was he?

"Oh yeah, why should I?" I still couldn't move, yet I had managed to turn right back around.

"You know we need to talk, and that we can't go on. This needs to happen." Yes, I knew but the fact that he said it aloud made it all the worse.

I had never really thought myself a coward, what with fighting the immortal god of time being an everyday 

after school activity, but as the man that had broken my heart gazed deep into the shallow corners of my soul, I was afraid.

How much further could I push him?

"**No**."

That seemed to do it.

"DAMN IT, ATLANTA!" Archie's hands were around me in an instant, violent pulling me off the ground. I had left a large imprint in the snow that was quickly filled up with what fell from my jacket. So Archie was yelling now? I guess I had asked for it, I was prepared for it really. Still, why did I shudder at his touch? Why did I loathe the way he was touching me, but longed for his touch?

Damn him.

"DAMN WHAT, _**WHAT **_ARCHIE?" My frame quivered in his iron grip, and I bit my lower lip until I almost tasted the metallic swell of blood.

"YOU, ME, IT, **EVERYTHING**." I was going to be severely bruised the next morning. I hated how I savoured the pain. The brute force numbed my arms to match my hands, my brain, myself. I no longer cared of hypothermia; if I died I could be free. Free of this world, and the hurt that was momentarily taken away by a more pressing physical one.

"I-It?" Why did I have to tremble to ferociously? Why couldn't I stay calm? My heart roared in my ears.

"YES, IT! THE FACT THAT YOU NEVER EVEN BOTHERED TO _ASK _WHAT OPPOSITE EVEN MEANT!" Archie spat. He was a burning man, though I could feel no heat through his gloves and my coat. I watched, just as always, as the groan that escaped my chapped lips turned to smoke in the air. Like the smoke in his eyes.

Shivering, he let me go.

"What you do to me, Lannie..." Archie seemed to be in agony, and his hands did wicked work on his hair instead of me. I watched his thinly covered back wearily. It seemed like the grudge of Winter was losing, and fast. I wanted to reach out, and warm him. He never did wear enough clothing, my _happier _memories remembered that all too well. I was pushed back into despair, and I rubbed my sides gingerly.

"What do I do to you, Archie?" I said gently. The crazy person inside my head was screaming at me for being stupid again, but I ignored her.

Archie seemed to be the one that was not alright.

He stood there, looking like he was losing a battle within himself. His hands were definitely breaking the skin covering his skull. My worries were confirmed as I saw droplets of crimson stain the snow.

Locking the little voice away for good, I reached out and my hand alarmingly caressed the side of Archie's face. To even more of my horror, the hand didn't stop. If I was cold, he was frigid.

He was...

_**Pulling away?!**_

The evil whispers broke free from the prison I had so newly created. Their fragile foundations broken forever, just after being mended. I felt a new shiver envelope my body. Rage. Pure, unadulterated loathing.  


**I HAD JUST FORGIVEN HIM AGAIN, AND HE DID **_**THIS**_**?!**"DO YOU CARE TO EXPLAIN, ARCHIE!" I yelled. For the first time I noticed some people watching us from a far. I couldn't give a far cry from hell, "Because it seems to me like the moment I actually let myself be vulnerable around you, and actually _want _to talk, you go ahead a destroy everything you've built right back up!"

"It's just the opposite really..." Archie had to get over his mode swings and quit PMSing. He was back to being shy and reserved. My rage grew white hot.

"**OH YEAH, SURE. **I suppose that you _accidently _said that word then, hmm? Just to get on my nerves again? WELL, IT WORKED, YOU ASSHOLE."

He ignored me, and Archie's head moved from the hazy blue sky back down to me. I must've looked horrible. Panting like some feral beast; hackles raised and snarling. He didn't smile, or make a move to stop the attack that was boiling up inside of me. I had no common sense left. That boy was dying today, I didn't care if the murder was obvious, I didn't even care that I was contemplating murder. I knew that he knew I was plotting, and I knew that I knew I would regret it later. I knew that he—

"When I said you were opposite, I had meant that I hadn't loved her."

I knew nothing.

"And until you have an answer to my question, I don't want you to talk to me. I cannot bear to go one more day without knowing, Atlanta. Without knowing if you feel the same way. Goodbye." Archie turned from me, and ripped away the last faint trance of the sanity I had left. I lost control of my mind, body, heart, head, soul, sight, hearing, nothing, everything, him, the world, all I knew, myself, him, us, my memories... My memories of us.

HE _**LOVED **_ME?! B-B-BUT, b-bu-bu-t—t I knew that he knew I cared, a-and I knew that I knew that I cared too, at least... kinda knew. My whole being shook with the newfound information, and my knees sunk back in the cold confines of the snow. It was all too new! So I knew now that I knew, and that he knew that I knew, because he knew, and now I knew. At least, I knew that he knew! Oh no, but he knew that I knew, or didn't... I knew?

Maybe I had never really known at all.

And Winter melted inevitably into the green of a New Spring.

**_o—With Winter Comes A Loss Of Senses, That You Can't Feel.—o_**

**Author's Note:** NUU KNEW THAT YOU KNEW THAT NUU KNEW THAT YOU'D REVIEW.—Nuuoa


	5. New Spring

**Author's Note:** So it seems I have succeeded in confusing you guys. This story is not over. Yes, I made it through the seasons, but this is _New _Spring, not just Spring. So here we are :3, the –actual- real last chapter. Unfortunately though.

Though I'm not too happy with how the last chapter turned out, as I had much to fit in, I cannot express how much I appreciate all your support, love, and reviews. It has made writing this such a pleasure, and has actual made me work at it, and think of better quotes and ideas. You are all equally amazing, and deserve every joy imaginable. Love you guys! Thank you for everything!—Nuuoa

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Class of the Titans. Odie invented it. It is also made from Merlin's beard, and inspired by Ruber's lip-brow curl... and this disclaimer is made of inside jokes.  
**  
****Review Replies:**

_reborn-fire-bird: Well, as you can see... it's not over : ). But thank you for your wonderful review all the same. I hope this update kind of brings things to a better close, so you won't 'fdfjlksdjfl' on the floor again... or maybe it will cause a worse escape of keyboard flurries. Either way, thank you for your loyalty, which I in turn hope to return as soon as I get some spare time._

Mystery-Immortal: Oh, pshhhh, you gave me a review! That's beyond what I ask for. Thank you :3. And gosh, that was nice of her, I'm glad you seemed to have liked it.

FuNnYcIdE: Well, even in Class of the Titans is over... LOOKEY. I'm still here! Thanks so much for your awesome reviews : ).

dazzeling diamond: You've been... to be cheesy, as real GEM. A diamond in the rough of short reviews. I cannot tell you how much your elevating critic has made my day. Over and over again. You are just fabulous, and spectacular, not to mention a great author yourself. You have been invaluable to me in both motivation in writing, and my personal life. Thank you.

.Gabby-chan182.: Haha, gnom, gnom, gnom. The yummy is for Archie, is it not? Oh yesss, Archiiieee. He's back. Enjoy the food! Here's your fifth course.

.Inivisible-Nobody: Well there is! Wow... really should've clarified, instead of angsting away about something that happened like two months before I updated. Thank you though :3, hope you like the last update. The –clarified- last.

Anya-Paradox: There is no battle! GOODNESS GLACIERS AN-MAN! YAH, MAN YAH! You are the angst-queen. Duchess of all. My writing is the cloud of fluff on which Raffiki rides to UPENDI. But thank you all the same ;D, you know I adore your compliments, though I blush. OH JUGGERNAUT, I'VE BEEN CAUGHT. Well... Archie hasn't broken any headboards... yet. GNU KNEW THAT YOU'D HAVE TO RE-READ IT. Though this review reply comes during an update, you know you must work on yours too *cough, cough, I know nothing of this*. So work, or go make-out in a field, under the stars of lions fighting for a scrap of meat.

...

_..._

_SIMBA._

_Becky Sky: Nuu knew that she loves your writing too : ). Thank you. RHYMES AND AN UPDATE._

_Lepidopteran: awww, well thank you so much! OH NO, THE NOTEBOOK. Great, now I need to spend my five dollars and go rent it. FOREVER. I'm glad you liked the symbolism. I actually almost bawled writing that, because I'm so awful to 'Lannie. Oh well. More fun to read, eh?_

_Demenior: You're silly, and poetic, and should just go off and watch Digimon. Instead you decide to make Nuu blush. WELL YOU KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO DO BECAUSE OF THAT? Make you blush right back :3. You're crazy, and awesome, and ubertastic, and I've said this so much that those words cease to possess meaning._

Ranta:Well first, yes, yes there will be. xDD. And secondly. BLUSH ATTACK ON MY FACE. Stained by your epic. Thank you deary-dear. I hope this chapter is epic/wow too! It is the end, but still the beginning of me reviewing you as well. Your one-shots are very prettiful :3.

**TO ALL: Thank you very, very much.**

**o—Beats, Heats, Endless Drops of Rain on Streets—o**

**Chapter Five: New Spring**

_**o—o  
**_  
So that was how, over three months later, I had ended up here, under the stupid tree once again... isolated in the pouring rain. His words ringing over and over again in my head...

_"... I cannot bear to go one more day without knowing, Atlanta. Without knowing if you feel the same way. Goodbye."_

The last words he had said to me since.

Well... I guess you don't really know.

Ever since... what I liked to refer as 'the incident', Archie had done just as he had promised. When I woke up in morning, he long longer greeted me with a noogie to the head. When I walked to school, we no longer raced to see who could make it to the door first. Winning against yourself is never as fun. It was the same on the walk home.

When I went for my evening runs, I was accompanied solely by my shadow, and the stars were the only ones who winked at me, telling me goodnight.

The others had begun to worry, or, at least, it had begun to escalate since Winter. Jay had had to make some involuntary changes to our pairing off during missions. No longer did I have the stubborn idiot at my side. Cronus had been the most happy with this change. We had been unbalanced for weeks.

Herry, Archie and I no longer enjoyed our late-night horror fest. That was now the privilege of a sad Herry, his popcorn and an over-squished teddy bear.

I'm not too sure how it had personally affected Odie or Neil, but they seemed concerned none the less. Whenever Archie and I collided in the middle of a room, Odie would take a rare glance up from his computer and Neil would turn his mirror to catch our reflection. I don't know what they were expecting. We always did the same thing. Turn away.

Theresa was the worst of all. I was to later find out that she had been having visions of our fights ever since Summer, but had refrained from mentioning them to me, thinking that it may spark even more anger within me. She was right. That had been the week where _I _had started insulting Archie to his face.

Still, he said nothing.

Even the gods were in turmoil.

And it hurt me to say... That I missed hearing his voice. I loathed even the idea of the thought. That's why, when he had spoken to me just a few minutes ago, it had brought such an emotion, that I had run away in terror.

_"Do you have my answer yet?"_

The gentle hum of the gray sky stole me from my flashback. My deep-crested eyes watched the dance the heavy rain made as it tumbled hastily from the mouth of the ominous clouds. It was because of this that I now stood, in the middle of a great and terrible storm. Taking shelter under a tree...

Our goddam tree.

Through the haze that had quietly settled over the horizon, I could barely see the city of New Olympia. The park that I had grown to... feel for scared me more than it had a couple months ago. Though it was no longer brittle and bare, there was a certain unsettling emptiness about it. Where were the birds? Where were the pinks, fuchsias, evergreens, and golds?

Spring had never looked like this.

It looked as if all the colours were being washed away by the flood of the heavens, and I would be carried along with them. In my haste, I cursed myself for once again forgetting an important article of clothing. My raincoat still hung crisp and dry in the brownstone.

"Why must I be such an idiot?" I heaved into the side of the most hated tree, wondering if I should make a dash for another tree nearby. But this was the best protection. Its limbs were thick and knotted, and though the cover was barely any, it was still far better than the weak branches of the spruce trees outlined through the murk.

"I don't know." Archie's voice called through the gray-darkness.

It did not startle me, as it did the last time he has answered my own question. I closed my eyes, and leaned into the muddy surface of the bark. Of course he would find me here. Stupid.

"I brought your raincoat ." I knew he was handing it to me, but I did not uncross my arms. I felt the material brush against my bare leg, placed at my feet.

Time passed, but you could never trust the man who handled time, as we had all learned. Cronus enjoyed watching me struggle, and so Archie spoke.

"Are you going to say anything?"

"What do you WANT me to say, Archie?!" My eyes flashed open. I had grown accustom to watching his face after months of silence, and though his voice still entranced me, his face... I knew all to well. I could handle him, and yet anger did not permit me to distinguish rationality, "What do you expect me to say? I mean... all you said was that she was opposite! How on earth am I supposed to take that to mean that you DIDN'T LOVE HER?!" I quoted his other words from the infamous 'Archie incident'.

"I know that was stupid of me. And I know that I shouldn't have refused to talk to you until—"

I disregarded his lame attempt at an explanation, "Do you want me to say that I'm SORRY?! Sorry for being so bloody stupid? Sorry for hurting you since the day we met? Sorry for leading you on without even being _aware _of this tiny fact? Or do you want me to say that I'm sorry for laughing with you? Sorry for fighting with you? Sorry for waking up each day, not being able to wait to see your face? Sorry for loving you as my best friend?"

I slunk to the ground beneath him. I was sobbing, adding pounds to the water already sloshing around his feet and my knees. I think that I may have cried for a while, maybe even five minutes, though any measure of time had no relevance to my pain. The only thing that I could possibly relate to where I was in that moment was how I had fallen. I had sunk into the water. My heart had sunk in the waters of his eyes.

I was drowning.

"Don't say sorry," Archie finally spoke, "I am the one who is sorry... Do you honestly think that I want to see you this way?"

I could not reply, if I dared open my mouth, I would only become victim to weeping once more. Archie seemed to take my silence for something else. I faintly heard him sigh.

"Of course not. Never, I had never wanted to hurt you with words that I had wished were only spoken for happiness. I just couldn't... I couldn't go another day without knowing that you felt the same way as I did. I was wrong. When I realized that you had grown distant from me because of Soph—" He stopped himself, and for a moment the only thing I heard was the rain that had become the soundtrack to my sorrow.

After another sigh, he continued, more cautiously this time, "When I realized that you were upset with what I had said about... her... I had vainly hoped that it was because you felt the same about me, as I did—do about you. But this took awhile 'Lan. I'm just as oblivious as you, maybe that's why we've always been such great friends. I didn't notice that I was hurting you, until it was too late." His voice faded off, and I strained to hear the last of his plea. I wished I hadn't heard it.

"Can you forgive me?"

YES! NO. NEVER! OBVIOUSLY. OBVIOUSLY NOT. Voices swirled around in my head, fighting for supremacy, but surely I could defeat them all, and gain control of my own thoughts. I was a hero, one of the seven chosen, surely I could. But how could I? When I knew not which one belonged to me.

The one that spoke was definitely not me.

"I just want things to go back to the way they were."

Or maybe it was closer to me than I had ever known.

Archie stood still, his shadow composed of the fizzle of the drizzle. Ha. I'm a rhyming gangster...

"That," he pursed his lips, "is the one thing I cannot do for you."

I swallowed my soft laughter, reality seeping back in. What use was humour? Where words meant everything, in a world where they did nothing.

Nothing at all.

"One thing? Just ask Odie. I've never been good at putting one and one together."

"Me either. Odie tutors me too."

"This isn't a Math equation Archie," I snarled.

"I know."

A drop of sky fell from the bridge of his nose.

"Then where do we go from here?" It was obvious to me that where we would go, and what we wanted would not be the same. While I longed to go back, an improbability, Archie pushed forward. This is the rate we had always been traveling, ironic, as I was the one who always raced forward. If we kept this up, we would forever be trapped along a fine line. A fine line between what though? Friendship and love? What was between it? Friends with benefits?

Archie seemed to have read the blankness of my stare, because he pulled his soaked hood tighter around himself to mask even the shame of the idea.

"No. That is not what I want. Ever." Why was it, I thought as I watched his pale skin glow in the pale sunlight, that even when he did not know what to do, he was sure of what he wanted.

"What do you want?"

There was no need to answer.

Fire collided with water as our eyes met. They burned through the mist, and I was extinguished by his passion. By this point, even my bones were drenched. His eyes, they were one of the first things I had found beautiful about him, the awkward boy. The immature sparkle I had seen embedded so many times before held such a wisdom I had never known. It pierced blue and gray.

It was lost within his eyes that I found the answer to our question. When two forces pull in opposite directions, one does not stay in the same place. The line. The fine line.

Breaks in two.

"So that's that then." Archie cut the connection between our souls when he moved. Even before he took his first step, I could feel the strain on my heart. The scissors of fate opened wide, eager to break us apart forever.

Another step, he appeared to be walking on water. My throat was clogged and raw.

A second, the blades came closer. I could feel myself shrinking farther and farther away. My hands were numb and shaking.

A third...

There was no need.

In the fog, I could no longer see his silhouette.

I had been violently torn from love. I cried out, alone amongst nothing. This was not what I wanted! This was not how the end was supposed to begin! Not born from the wails of a shattered girl. Then what did I want? How was the end supposed to begin? I was too tired... Tired of questions, and tired of not knowing.

What did I know? Not what I thought to have known, what was the undeniable truth...

Fact.

Love had cast me aside, and left me to die.

Fact.

Archie had cast me aside, and left me to die.

Fact.

I had cast aside love, and left myself to die.

Fact.

I had cast aside Archie, and left myself to die.

For the first time, Odie's math lessons paid off, and one and one met at last, fitting perfectly into place.

Archie and Love... were the same.

I loved him.

I continued to cry.

All this time, I had been my own enemy, getting in the way of my own happiness. How could I not have seen? What was before me? Before it was too late? More questions...

Matched with answers, that could answer nothing.

I had put one and one together, but I was one person that could never be put with another, or even put back with myself.

Suddenly, my lamenting became interrupted. The sucking sound a shoe made on mud made me look up. Drops of wet lamplight uncloaked a man. He was tall. An awkward height, and dripping from his odd-coloured purple head, to his one shiny gold-plated foot. And he was beautiful.

I could barely breathe, "Archie..."

"You know...You're making it awful hard," the shadows of his mouth smiled sadly, "to leave."

Before history could even blink, my heart grew wings, and I had broken the spell of Spring. Slumber was gone. The sandman was gone. I was free. Free from anything that had bound me to ground, or weighed me down with lies.

The line morphed into steel. Solidified by my lips on his.

I drank him in. I could taste his surprise, but also his love. How could I not have seen?

Archie's hot lips peeled back slowly from my own. Despite the wet surface, his moist, delicate skin clung to mine as long as it could. Maybe it was because I had melted to him; I could not be sure. My mind was in a far better place than logic.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip...

Rain.

Sweat.

Tears...

The beating of the rain on the sidewalk had fizzled to the back of my mind. The only thing I could hear was my heart, furiously, gently, never there; within me. My lids stayed hazy and closed for even longer. Time had not frozen, but rather had become a place devoid of passing or passed.

Oh, what a generous patron life had become.

A heavy laced breathing joined the vague symphony, after a while; a period of time that had yet to claim the after. And soon, another expanse of time that meant nothing to me, this beautiful sound gained the faintest touch and voice.

"Now that... makes leaving even harder."

His breath tickled the edge of my mouth and I sighed into him. The tickle grew stronger as it made its way up my damp cheek. When had it stopped raining? What was rain? Was I crying? Did it matter? Not when Archie's blissful torture had reached my ear. He stopped doing wicked things only long enough to whisper a promise made for gods.

"Is this really what you want?"

I nodded.

"Then... I love you."

Retracing the steps on my skin.

"I love you."

Hot, moist, husky, demure, indistinct. He captured the lid of my soul.

"I. Love. You."

I moaned; Archie smiled against me, so I pulled away reluctantly. Hey, I still had _some _common sense left! Enough... at least... to put Archie in his place.

I was, after-all, the girl that he loved.

"Y-you're being cocky Archie!" My voice continued to betray me, even after all this time.

"Cocky you say? That can be arranged." The hormones from his body dyed my face bright red.

"Shut up!" I pushed him away, and I became all too aware of my body, and how close we had been. How... wonderful it had been. How long had I gone without this? Happy enough with my pride to dwell in sorrow and the pit of jealousy? Without Archie as close to me as he had been, it occurred to me how much time had REALLY passed. Had it really been a year? A year since I had stood here, no more than a child. Well... figuratively speaking.

In that time, I had grown so much, not just in body, but in feelings.

Our tree reminded me of this.

A year ago, I had raced along this path, while its wrinkled face had witnessed the trace of my steps on Archie's heart. Where its ear had heard our carefree laughter. And where it first heard the beats of my new heart.

It had also heard the change of my heart, at last the simplicity of a child's world blooming into the raw heat of Summer. The tree had felt my sorrow of my confusion that day, when Archie's word had left me sitting on a lone branch.

When Fall had come, I had not returned to our park, so I wondered if that had made the mould of the bark that much more permanent when I had written my hatred on the blank frost of its trunk.

But it was easy to forget that this tree had not just endured my pain, it had also survived the gruelling heat of Summer, the dim of Fall, and the sharp freeze of Winter. And yet, here it stood, tall and strong, able to watch the last of my pain be washed away with the shower of the sky.

Though I thought it had died, it had not. It had only been sleeping, just as I had been—though it two entirely different ways. The branch that had broken from its side, the branch I had so hated to love, had not dissolved into the ground; instead I noticed the small tuff of fur that belonged to a rabbit taking shelter from the storm deep within its cavern.

I had to smile.

As I child I had been ignorant, and indeed it is true when they say that ignorance is bliss, but as I listened to the whispers of a past year of my life, I could not help but think of how much more beautiful the world looked without the sole tint of rose-coloured glasses. Without them on, I could see.

Everything.

"A-Atlanta?" Archie broke my thoughts. It occurred to me that I had not yet spoken," Y-You know I was just kidding... Are you okay? I thought that I could kid around more, now that I know—"

"Shut up." My head bowed. He was startled at my unreadable tone, "Oh Zeus... Why do I have to be so bad at this! Listen, 'Lan, I—"

"Shut up." My head raised and my eyes glistened softly in the wet light of my tears. I smiled as his despair vanished in surprise. My face had morphed back into what it was meant to be. Not that of an innocent child, a confused teenager, a realistic adult, or a bitter elder.

My face...

Was my own.

"A-Atlanta?" My finger silence his pointlessness.

"I kind of remember your lips being able to do a bit more than just mutter, hmm Archie?" The oddly adorable grin returned. A smile meant only for me. I liked the thought of that... The Seasons agreed.

"They will return to their duties momentarily, my dear... But first," Archie in turn took me by surprise, as one step covered the distance between us. I was trapped in his arms, a cage I had no real desire to escape. My arms gained life, and returned the embrace.

"Let me hold you."

It was the beginning and the end of a dream.

A dream that had no end.

Where beginnings had never begun.

Spring never Started.

Summer never Sizzled.

Fall never Faded.

And Winter never Was, for it never Withered.

It was a magical land. It rained everyday in a castle made of a tree.

Where a young woman could live forever as a child, encased in the arms of a man.

Bathing in the bright and glorious dawn.

Of a New Spring.

**The End**


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